Choosing The Job After Your Preferred Role Is Something We Often Overlook.

In the end, the role to play towards other people is something we often compromise on behalf of job security, working in the field we want to be in, or working in a particular team. 

It becomes the least important criterion—even though it should be one of the most important factors. At the end of the day, the concept of money is that it is a payment method that represents the value you create.

And, at the end of the chain, there is always another person (or a crowd of people) whom you influence by doing your work: you either sell some product directly to the customer or to another company that sells to customers. Or, if you work in the public sector, you produce value for society.

That’s why the taxpayers are willing to indirectly pay for your work from their taxes. So, choosing the right role is very important for developing internal self-motivation, working on your personal development, building your career path and becoming successful in the job market in the long run.

How To Tell What Your Preferred Role Is?

So, how to figure out what role you prefer to play? That’s the difficult part. One obvious thing to do is to treat this as a research question and look at the empirical evidence.

• Every adult participated in a variety of projects, even if these were just school assignments.
• Everyone organized some events in their life, even if it was just a birthday party at home.
• Every person taught someone else something, even if it just meant showing a friend how to exchange a flat tire on their bike.
• Everyone had to persuade someone to do something, even if it just meant collecting some coins for a school charity project among neighbors.
• Every adult had to listen to some instructions from parents and teachers.

So, a logical strategy is to now look back and try to tell which of the situations that involved other people were your best memories, and why. Even if you haven’t had a real job yet, it doesn’t mean that you cannot find enough evidence.

It is often better to get down the memory line – all the way back to primary school when there were no confounders that might change your self-perception or influence your choices, such as the usual suspects: money, addictions, or attraction towards other people.

That One Question You Should Ask Yourself.

Yet another thing that is useful to do (and much less intuitive!) is as follows. You can twist the question and ask yourself, “How would I like people in my working environment to feel after I entered the room?”

Is that:

• Respect? (applies to a team leader, or someone with a lot of personal achievement behind their belt),
• Excitement? (applies mostly to people who are currently on top — famous for something),
• Joy? (applies if you are witty/befriended with everyone in your workplace, and when you don’t compete with anyone. This often applies to people who play auxiliary roles, for example, the ICT department at the university),
• Curiosity? (applies to people who are well connected and well informed, and always have some interesting news or anecdotes to share),
• Relief? (applies when you are known in your environment as a good problem solver and/or a trusted person — someone whom everyone would like to see in their corner),
• Fear? (applies if you are an authority, and you are in a position of power. Some people seem to enjoy this one…),
• Nothing? (applies if you are transparent to other people at work, and hold a standalone position where you don’t have direct contact with other people. This applies, for example, to jobs such as a guard at a night parking or a truck driver).